Big celebrations all over town. Hooray, hooray it’s a public holiday. In the main street they are serving pancake breakfasts.

To the accompaniment of high school saxophone jazz, very good stuff too. The jazz – I know nothing of the pancakes. In the park by the lake there are more musicians, stalls of all kinds and, an absolute necessity, free Canada Day cake.

Huge pieces of sugary delight. On the beach there is a sand sculpture challenge where some guys were making a sasquatch running off with a case of Nelson Brewing Company beer. They said they did not work for the brewery, but we’re hoping for a beer related gift if the brewery heard of their efforts.

Beach and Big Orange Bridge. Then it was back into town on a heritage electric tram, I think the driver said it was 112 years old.

Walking uphill towards main street we spotted a brewery with signs declaring it’s openness. The Torchlight brewery is only a year old, set up by Craig and Josh – this latter being a friend of Penny’s boys. Nelson may claim to be a city but it’s a small town really. Sampled a couple of beers. Their Broadside IPA is based on a recipe described in a book by a guy who travelled with a barrel of IPA from England to India, round the southern end of Africa – the book’s called Hops and Glory, the beer is excellent.

After a siesta in our hotel we were collected by Penny and Fred and taken to a new Indian restaurant near BOB for dinner. We ate on the porch, which turned out to be a good place to watch the big Canada Day firework display at about 10pm.